Tag: talents

That old Aerosmith song is playing in my mind, this morning. I’ve been working on my programming skills, over the past week, and amazingly enough, I’m actually able to make sense of things.

This is a huge change, compared to where I was 10 years ago. Even 5 years ago, I had real struggles with maintaining my attention long enough on anything to learn it. I would get so tired, cognitively, that I couldn’t continue with my learning. And I’d just drop it. I’d learn a bit, then I’d just wander off and forget I’d even started learning something.

Memory is a weird thing, sometimes. I can be so immersed in something… then I’ll get distracted and go do something else, and I’ll completely forget that I was working on anything else.

This is something I definitely need to work on. Because it happens to me at work, as well as at play. I lose track of projects I’m working on, at my day-job. And then I fall behind, and it’s a problem. I get turned around and end up behind the 8-ball, which is a terrible situation to be in for me.

I want to stay on top of things and keep current. But somehow I always get lost in the shuffle. I get distracted. I get tired. My brain starts to shut down on me, even while I’m on auto-pilot, just getting through my days by rote repetition.

So, since I know about this, I need to do something about this.

That goes for my job situation, as well as my own personal situation. In my current job, I need to keep up with what I’ve got going on, so I can just get it done and move on. I don’t want to be with this company past the end of the year. I just want to get out of there, and I need to make a career change back to doing programming again. I’ve come to realize that dealing with people all day in a capacity as a project/program manager is NOT for me. It’s been a good experience, but it’s not for me. I need a break from people and their messed-up emotions. I really want to work with machines. They’re very clear. And they don’t play head-games with me.

Plus, I can listen to music all day if I’m coding. I can’t do that, if I’m doing the people-thing. I need to work in a space where I can see immediate results of what I do. I’ve missed being a developer, and I realize now — once and for all — that this is what I’m meant to do. Not manage shit. Not run projects and programs. Screw that. I just want to build things. Make things happen. Forget the rest. I know where I belong, and it’s not in the position where I’m at now.

So, I’m using my time and frustration wisely. I’m building stuff in my free time. I’m doing tutorials, watching instruction videos while I ride my exercise bike in the morning, I’m building stuff I’ve been wanting to build, but haven’t yet gotten around to it. I’ve got some great ideas, and now I just need to work my way through them. I have another 5-1/2 months till I plan to move on, so I’ll spend time each month working on the core skills I need, building cool stuff that I can show to others, and eventually get myself to place where I’m as confident of my abilities as I need to be, to move on.

There’s a lot going on with me that’s pretty exciting, and I’m looking forward to getting up and running in earnest. I’ll start putting my work out there, as it develops, and see what comes of it. It’s pretty fascinating, really, so this will be fun.

I could use a little fun, for a change.

And this time, I’m not letting myself get sidetracked by distractions. I’m on a mission.

I have been wondering a lot about how my life might have been different, had I gotten help for my TBIs when they happened.

If I had gotten help when I was 7 and fell down the stairs, and again when I was knocked out by a rock when I was 8… If I had been given strict orders to rest, and then watched carefully and given extra help in school and life to teach me better how to deal with classroom and social situations… not to mention being treated as an injured person, rather than a bad seed… I wonder if my grades would have been better and if my talents would have been better used.

If I had gotten help after my sports concussions in high school… again, being forced to rest, sit out of sports, take it easy, address my balance issues and get help dealing with social and attentional issues… I wonder if I would have slipped so quickly into drugs and alcohol (that numbed the pain), or if I would have been such a contrary rebel who didn’t have a good grasp on the consequences of my choices.

I wonder if my grades might have been better, if my academic career might have been better, if my ability to pursue opportunities might have been better, earlier on in life… which could have made a difference in my career path, my ability to earn, my ability to pay taxes, my ability to hold down jobs for longer than a year or so. I wonder if I would have become so fond of risky ventures and certain kinds of danger. I wonder if I would have chosen the friends and associates I chose over the year — many of whom were bad choices, and I never realized it. Till too late. I wonder if I might have sustained some of my friendships with people over the years who meant so much to me, but whom I hurt terribly because my brain was broken and I had no clue.

I wonder if I might have been able to really contribute something of value to the world — a great book or a great discovery or a great body of research… Or just steadier, more reliable participation in my society and culture. I wonder if I might have achieved a level of participation that, given my personal commitment to make the world a better place whenever and however I can — might have helped people more than I have, thus far.

I usually get upset at tax time, when I look at how much (or little) I’ve earned and paid out, and I think about how much better I might have done for myself, had I not been so injured so often over the course of my life… so impaired… so under-achieving… so clueless about what was wrong with me. Now, I don’t want to feel sorry for myself and I don’t want to punish myself for things I had no control over. My injuries started when I was a kid, and they pretty much changed the course of my life without my understanding how or why. I know with all my heart that I have been tremendously blessed in so many, many ways. But I always feel a sense of inadequacy around this time of year. I just don’t feel like I’ve done enough with myself. I haven’t made the most of my potentials. What a waste.

On the bright side, a Washington State concussion bill would help protect young athletes, which is truly awesome! My injuries are part of my past, part of my present, and very much a part of my future. I never got adequate help after my concussions, when I was a young athlete. My chance at full recovery immediately after hard tackles, falls, and various accidents may have passed me by, but for lots of young kids, that doesn’t necessarily need to be the case.